Order Text:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the lawsof the United States of America, and in recognition of the successfulinteragency collaboration resulting from the Helping America's Youthinitiative, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the Federal Government to promoteachievement of positive results for at risk youth through:
(a) enhanced collaboration among government organizations at the Federal,State, and local level, including with faith-based and other communityorganizations, as well as among families, schools, and communities, inorder to leverage existing resources and improve outcomes;
(b) identification and dissemination of promising strategies and practicesthat have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation; and
(c) online publication of essential information to assist interestedcitizens and decision-makers, particularly at the community level, to plan,implement, and participate in effective programs for at-risk youth.
Sec. 2. Establishment of the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) shall establishwithin the Department of Health and Human Services for administrativepurposes only, an Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (WorkingGroup), consistent with this order and reflecting the ongoing interagencycollaboration under the Helping America's Youth initiative.
Sec. 3. Membership and Operation of the Working Group.
(a) The Working Group shall consist exclusively of the following membersor their designees, who shall be full-time Federal officers or employees:
(i) the Secretary;
(ii) the Attorney General;
(iii) the Secretaries of Defense, the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce,Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Education;
(iv) the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy;
(v) the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National andCommunity Service; and
(vi) other officers or full-time or permanent part-time employees of theUnited States, as determined by the Secretary, with the concurrence of thehead of the department or agency concerned.
(b) The Secretary (or the Secretary's designee) shall serve as Chair, andthe Attorney General (or the Attorney General's designee) shall serve asVice Chair, for a period of 2 years from the date of this order. Subsequent Chairs and Vice Chairs shall be designated by the Secretary on abiennial basis.
(c) In implementing this section, the Chair, and in the Chair's absencethe Vice Chair, shall convene and preside at meetings of the Working Group,determine its agenda, direct its work, and establish and direct subgroupsof the Working Group, as appropriate, to deal with particular subjectmatters, that shall consist exclusively of members of the Working Group ortheir designees. The Chair, after consultation with the Vice Chair, shalldesignate an officer or employee of one of the member departments oragencies to serve as the Executive Secretary of the Working Group. TheExecutive Secretary shall head any staff assigned to the Working Group andany subgroups thereof, and such staff shall consist exclusively offull-time or permanent part-time Federal employees.
Sec. 4. Functions of the Working Group. Consistent with the policy setforth in section 1 of this order, the Working Group shall:
(a) identify and engage key government and private or nonprofitorganizations that can play a role in improving the coordination andeffectiveness of programs serving and engaging youth, such as faith-basedand other community organizations, businesses, volunteers, and other keyconstituencies;
(b) develop a new Federal website on youth, built upon the Community Guideto Helping America's Youth, with the first phase of this website to belaunched within 10 months of the date of this order, by:
(i) identifying and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of existingFederal websites focusing on youth-serving entities in order to improveaccess to the most useful content;
(ii) providing for training to youth-serving entities to enable effectiveuse of the Federal website;
(iii) developing additional strategies and tools and resources accessiblethrough the Federal website that will help promote effectivecommunity-based efforts to reduce the factors that put youth at risk andthe provision of high-quality services to at-risk youth across the country;and
(iv) developing strategies to ensure that the Federal website isroutinely updated, improved, and publicized;
(c) encourage all youth-serving Federal and State agencies, communities,grantees, and organizations to adopt high standards for assessing programresults, including through the use of rigorous impact evaluations, asappropriate, so that the most effective practices can be identified andreplicated, and ineffective or duplicative programs can be eliminated orreformed;
(d)(i) identify and promote initiatives and activities that merit stronginteragency collaboration because of their potential to offercost-effective solutions to achieve better results for at-risk youth,including volunteer service in concert with the USA Freedom Corps andmentoring in concert with the Federal Mentoring Council; and,
(ii) encourage rigorous evaluations, as appropriate, of such initiativesand activities to ascertain their effectiveness in improving academic,employment, social, and other individual outcomes, and make these findingspublicly available, and
(e) annually report to the President, through the Assistant to thePresident for Domestic Policy, on its work and on the implementation of anyrecommendations arising from its work, with the first such report to besubmitted no later than 6 months after the date of this order.
Sec. 5. Administration of the Working Group. (a) The Secretary shall, tothe extent permitted by law, provide administrative support and funding forthe Working Group.
With the consent of the Secretary, other member departments or agencies mayprovide administrative support to the Working Group, to the extentpermitted by law and consistent with their statutory authority.
(b) The heads of executive departments and agencies shall provide, asappropriate, such assistance and information as the Secretary may requestto implement this order.
(c) The website referred to in section 4(b) of this order shall be fundedby contributions from executive departments and agencies to the extentpermitted by law and consistent with their statutory authority.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construedto impair or otherwise affect:
(i) authority granted by law to a department, agency, or the headthereof; or
(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budgetrelating to budget, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law andsubject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right orbenefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by anyparty against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities,its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
GEORGE W. BUSH
